page_title: Louisiana Hayride
section_title: Beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Louisiana Hayride / Hayride history / Beginnings
caption_attribution_description: Shreveport Municipal Auditorium (site of Louisiana Hayride)
context_page_description: Louisiana Hayride was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American country and western music. Hank Williams began performing on the Hayride in 1948 after his initial rejection from the Grand Ole Opry. After being fired from the Opry on August 11, 1952, Williams returned to the Hayride briefly before his death on New Years Day 1953. Elvis Presley performed on the radio version of the program in 1954 and made his first television appearance on the television version of Louisiana Hayride on March 3, 1955.
context_section_description: The creators of the show took the name from the 1941 book with that title by Harnett Thomas Kane, an examination of the "Louisiana Hayride" scandals of 1939–1940 that sent to prison such notables as Louisiana State University President James Monroe Smith and former Louisiana building superintendent George A. Caldwell. First broadcast on April 3, 1948 from the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Shreveport, Horace Logan was the original producer and emcee.  The musical cast for the inaugural broadcast included: the Bailes Brothers, Johnnie and Jack, the Tennessee Mountain Boys with Kitty Wells, the Four Deacons, Curley Kinsey and the Tennessee Ridge Runners, Harmie Smith, the Ozark Mountaineers, the Mercy Brothers, and Tex Grimsley and the Texas Showboys.
caption: Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium
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